Which type I-back do you prefer?

Which I-Back type do you prefer?

  • Speed, Quickness, Agility type

    Votes: 32 51.6%
  • Size, Toughness, Breaking tackles type

    Votes: 30 48.4%

  • Total voters
    62




Tough to vote in this poll.  I like LP on the field.  He was both fast and a tough runner.  Even as a true freshmen he was a man among boys on the field.  Just watch the first minute of this Youtube. 

Off the field LP?  Not so much.  LP was a criminal.  If you could put Rex Burkhead's personality into Lawerence Phillips body, you'd have the best running back in the history of football.  

 
Wilbon was more productive at running the ball that Ozigbo was, yes.  He averaged 0.5 more yards per carry than Ozigbo did.  And the coaches obviously thought he was better (not that their judgement meant a whole lot).

But Wilbon was not the better running back because he couldn’t do all the other things that needed to be done.  So they ended up going with Oz most of the time.

Again, you’re letting the things you like or don’t like dominate your opinion.  Ozigbo always got the extra yards.  Wilbon wouldn’t cut and get up field.  Yet Wilbon still got more yards per carry than Ozigbo.  So you’re obviously ignoring a pretty significant part of running the ball that Wilbon was doing significantly better to make up those yards.


Like i said, it's tough to get a rhythm and feel for the game when you don't get to play much. That's my entire contention is that he rode the pine too much. I bring up the Wisconsin game, you say it was just a good game for him, then mention Penn state as an example of when he didn't do good... i just skimmed the first half vs PSU and he got like 4 touches the whole 1st half, wilbon who they played most of the half hadn't run very well, and boom, we're down 35-7, and I'm guessing wilbon boosted his ypc average significantly after the game was already decided... so again, stats are great all things being equal, but they don't tell the whole story. You have to actually use your eyes and dig into WHY the stats look the way they do. 

 
I think Wisconsin had a slew of running backs that didn't amount to much in the NFL.


And that's where I was going next.  Wisconsin has had some great collegiate backs, that didn't pan out in the NFL.  

Wisky had great lines and made better than average RB's heisman trophy winners...

 
Like i said, it's tough to get a rhythm and feel for the game when you don't get to play much. That's my entire contention is that he rode the pine too much. I bring up the Wisconsin game, you say it was just a good game for him, then mention Penn state as an example of when he didn't do good... i just skimmed the first half vs PSU and he got like 4 touches the whole 1st half, wilbon who they played most of the half hadn't run very well, and boom, we're down 35-7, and I'm guessing wilbon boosted his ypc average significantly after the game was already decided... so again, stats are great all things being equal, but they don't tell the whole story. You have to actually use your eyes and dig into WHY the stats look the way they do. 


Yes, you're doing a lot of guess and trying to find excuses why what you think is correct isn't backed up by any statistics.

Against Penn State, Both Oz and Wilbon got 4 carries in the 1st half.  Wilbon netted 7 yards, Oz netted 5.  In the third quarter, Wilbon got 2 carries for 25 yards, Oz got 3 carries for 7 yards.  So you can waive that away as getting stats after the game was decided but Oz was getting as many or more chances and did a lot less with them.  That was his pattern the first three years he was here.

And, since you're so wrapped up in Oz, the reason he had such a great year last year was not because of his size and toughness.  He slimmed down, got faster and took advantage of Frost's offense creating him huge opportunities to run in space.  In his first three years here he had a total of 5 games where he had a run longer than 17 yards.  He had 14 games where his longest run was less than 10 yards.  He only had two games where he had a run longer than 30 yards.  Last year alone he had 6 games where he had a run longer than 20 yards and only had 3 games where his longest run was shorter than 10 yards.  He had 4 games last year where he had a longer run than any game in his first three years. 

So the reason he was racking up yards last year way because he was using better speed in an offense built to create big plays, not because he was plowing ahead for that extra 1-2 yards each play.

 
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